Social Media Branding Exercises

Curt Finch has more than two decades of software development and distributed workforce management experience. In 1997, Curt created the world's first internet-based timesheet application and the foundation for the current Journyx product offering. Curt has a B.S. in Computer Science from Virginia Tech. His book, All Your Money, is available on Amazon.

Using networks like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to brand yourself or your company is becoming very popular these days. Tons of consultancies have sprung up, offering to help you do it effectively. News stories and articles hammer it into your head that if you don't have a presence on these networks, you might as well just close up shop. To a certain extent, they have a point … social media is here to stay and will only increase in significance for businesses. Yet how far do you have to go to stand out and get people – the right people, that is – to notice?

My company, Journyx, experimented with a Twitter campaign in March that gave prizes to our followers each day for the entire month. We learned a lot during the campaign, and we had a lot of fun too. We are looking to launch campaigns on the other networks as well to see what kind of potential they have.

Have any of you tried social media branding and marketing campaigns in your companies? What kind of success did you have, if any?

Here are some of the top resources I've found for advice on the subject: